Dubai is known to be one of the urban miracles of the modern world a futuristic city rising in the middle of a desert is something our ancestors 100 years ago could only imagine in a sci-fi film it's hard to imagine that this fascinating location used to be just a tiny fishing village it seems almost logical that a small town in a very inconvenient climate zone could become one of the world's biggest businesses and financial hubs.
How did this happen, to answer this question, let's have a look.
In the history of Dubai, located in the Persian Gulf right in the middle of the Eurasian continent, Dubai was destined to be a crossing point between east and west at the same time.
The climate here is almost inhumane the temperature in summer reaches 50 degrees Celsius and that is the reason why for centuries urban development here was quite slow the Persian Gulf, however, was still an important area for the British Empire being a strategic route connecting London to Bombay royal fleet needed to secure this area from pirates
In the 19th century, the British East India Company signed an agreement with local sheiks, particularly with the Al MAKTOUM family the ruling dynasty of Abu Dhabi and Dubai to secure peace in the area Al MAKTOUM dynasty rules Dubai until the present day despite these agreements.
The British Empire never really tried to develop the area while the crown was heavily investing in developing Bombay the southern capital of the Empire by building infrastructures railway and a university there was hardly any interest in developing Dubai as a city for the British Empire Dubai was just a junior partner a crossing point for the Royal Fleet nothing more despite the lack of interest from the Empire Dubai was becoming more and more significant for the region in 1900 the current ruler announced that no taxes will be charged from the traders and soon Persian and Indian merchants started moving in the city was convenient for trading also thanks to Dubai Creek a saltwater canal that was allowing trading ships to sail from the Gulf right into the city shortly Dubai became the biggest trading hub on the Persian Gulf in early 20th century the city also became a big center of pearl diving which attracted even more merchants every year the pearl industry became so big that soon nose forming 95% of the Persian Gulf economy Dubai, however, was still a big village rather than a city the urban development started with the reign of Sheik Mohammad in 1959 he went touring around Europe and was greatly inspired by European capitals particularly London walking around the city and travelling on the tube.
He was fascinated by the urban design transport system and overall comfort and convenience that London had to offer after his trip Sheik Mohammad started implementing his great plan of turning to buy into an international city in 1961 he instructed to artificially deepen the Dubai creek so that bigger trading ships could sail in under his guidance, the city was being rebuilt with stone and cement having a dream of a great city in his mind sheik Muhammad started building an international airport, although his investors thought he is being too romantic and these urban projects are simply unnecessary, and it was becoming challenging to fund all these ambitious projects Sheik Mohammad x plans to create an international capital would probably stall at this stage but in 1966 they found oil and Dubai despite the common belief that Dubai became the city that it is today mainly thanks to oil the oil reserves found in 1966 were quite modest by middle-eastern standards for reference neighboring Abu Dhabi had ten times more oil than Dubai however the limited resource was a blessing for the city instead of considering oil as a limitless source of wealth Sheik Mohammad started investing the generated profit in urban development his vision was to build a city that wouldn't depend on oil money he was inviting the most talented architects engineers and entrepreneurs to Dubai since Sheik Mohammad biggest inspiration was London he hired a team of British experts who were consulting him on further steps one of Sheik Rashid's main goals was to make Dubai attractive for all nationalities despite being a Muslim city he made sure people of other religions and beliefs could feel comfortable living there like most of the other newly developing cities Dubai needed a grand project that could attract international attention, so Sheik Mohammad instructed to build a skyscraper in 1979 the 39-storey building named Dubai World Trade Center was officially open for business being an unprecedented urban project for Dubai it was insignificant for the world where 100-storey buildings already existed in fact international media was ridiculing the city's grand investments, but Sheik Mohammad was convinced that Dubai will soon be taken seriously by the international community unfortunately he never saw the city reach its full glory tragically dying in 1981 at a relatively young age, but he managed to lay the foundation of a city that he had envisioned after Sheik Rashid died in 1981 his work was continued by one of his son's 31-year-old Muhammad just like his father he was obsessed with the idea of turning Dubai into a modern international city his main inspiration was Daniel Burnham an American architect and urban designer that is known for planning and designing modern Chicago in the early 20th century Daniel Burnham was convinced that a city architect has to plan big if you want your city to be spoken about small and mediocre projects won't get you anywhere Sheik Muhammad adopted this approach and decided to make Dubai a city of the biggest and the tallest in 2000 he introduced Emirates Towers which were higher than any building in Europe at the time, but that wasn't big enough for Dubai Sheik Mohammed wanted to build the tallest building in the world in 2010 they completed the construction of Burj Khalifa.
The highest skyscraper in the world being a very hands-on manager himself Sheik Mohammed was spending most of his time on construction sites he was circling the city in his white Mercedes which registration plates said Dubai one this plate was reflecting his overall philosophy and life mission for Daniel Burnham railway was the key asset of building a new great city like Chicago for Sheik Mohammed that key asset was aviation in 1974 he was already curating the construction of Dubai International Airport in 1980 he employs sir Maurice Flanagan of British Airways to build emirates the new international airlines of Dubai soon Emirates was flying to most of the biggest international airports becoming a gateway to Dubai for thousands of tourists entrepreneurs and investors who were curious to visit the new marvel of the Middle East in 2002 Sheik Mohammed allowed foreigners to own land in Dubai which quickly turned the city into one of the biggest real estate markets billionaires around the world jumped on this new opportunity of owning property in a city free of taxes and restrictions Dubai became a gigantic construction site every architect firm big or small was rushing to Dubai bringing as many architects and engineers as they physically could.
It was a construction Gold Rush in the middle of a desert the biggest architects from around the world brought their most ambitious projects to Dubai Sheik Mohammed had another ambitious project in mind he wanted to turn Dubai into a world financial center competing with major financial capitals like New York and London soon Dubai international financial center was created it's a special economic zone covering 110 hectares with its laws and regulations it was basically a separate state within a city like the Vatican in Rome the hub shortly became home to the Giants of the international banking system including Citibank HSBC and Standard Chartered Dubai was growing rapidly soon 95% of the population were foreigners from around the world this, of course, had a great impact on the local culture a new truly international city was born which was a unique phenomenon in the world many capitals around the world claimed to be international in multinational cities, but the reality is that there is always a dominating local culture or culture of the majority for example London which served as an inspiration for Sheik Rashid when he started developing Dubai although being a diverse city and home to numerous ethnicities and cultures are still a British City Dubai however became a cultural no-man's land of a sort everyone here is a guest, so everyone can feel at home local citizens are only three to five percent of the population this aspect of the city earned a lot of criticism as well for example the Washington Post once stated that Dubai in this attempt to be a successful Arabic city had to sacrifice all its Arabic features another negative aspect of this rapid development became the fact that the United Arab Emirates became the only country that spends more energy than the USA despite all this divides an urban the phenomenon that serves as an inspiration for many other developing cities around the world today let us know in the comments if you have ever been to Dubai and what you like or dislike about the city if you enjoyed this video and would like to see more videos on our channel about historic architecture and urban design of Dubai
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